AN AMERICAN woman who believes she may have lost her husband to the
Bahamas' nefarious drug trade in the 1980s, has become part of an
organisation she hopes will help alleviate the suffering of persons
who
also have lost loved ones, especially during the height of the drug
war.

For the past 22 years, Donna Weaver has been on a quest to discover
what happened to her husband Gary after he came to the Bahamas on
December 2, 1983 to repair an aeroplane. She is now the new area
director for the Bahamas at the Doe Network - International Centre
for Unidentified and Missing Persons.

"I can't think of a better way for me to honour Gary's memory then to
try to help others in a similar situation and make something positive
out of what happened. It is my wish to give something back to a place
and cause close to my heart," Mrs Weaver told The Tribune.

The Doe Network is a volunteer organisation devoted to helping law
enforcement agencies all over the world solve cold cases related to
unexplained disappearances and unidentified victims.

It is their mission to "give the nameless back their names and return
the missing to their families".

"I believe it is possible that there are many Bahamian families that
have suffered much like I have because of losing loved ones,
especially
during the bad days of the drug war," said Mrs Weaver.

Mrs Weaver said that she has learned how hard it is for good,
hardworking police officers in the Bahamas and elsewhere to keep up
with and work on older cases.

"There just isn't enough time and manpower for many departments to do
so, as new cases and crime happen. Here in the United States many of
the cold case missing and unidentified are no longer in the system of
local agencies or never were, depending on the resources at the
time,"
said Mrs Weaver.

The organisation cross checks the description of missing persons
against cases in an organisation's cold case file for matches. Only
the
best possible matches are forwarded to the referring agency.

While it is not the policy of the agency to contact the families of
the
missing and unidentified, families are always welcome to contact them
through their website www.doenetwork.org.